Rochester baker finds happiness in a home-grown success story

By Deborah Bullock, Contributing Writer

Sunday

Dec 3, 2017 at 12:01 AMDec 3, 2017 at 8:08 AM

The UPS man drives down Walnut Plain Road in Rochester with his windows open. As he approaches Artisan Bake Shop he can smell all things pastry: sugar, vanilla, chocolate and cinnamon, depending on the day.

Even the address – Walnut Plain Road – has a delicious sound to it. But this isn’t a regular bakery with display cases and walk-in traffic; it’s a specialty bakery where everything is made to order and their specialty is wedding cakes. It once was very different.

Proprietor and Pastry Chef Meredith Ciaburri-Rousseau grew up in Rochester and wanted a shop that kept the small-town look and feel of a rural area rife with cranberry bogs, pine groves and long, winding roads.

She graduated valedictorian of her class at The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, going on to complete an externship at The Sagamore Resort, a grand hotel on Lake George in Upstate New York.

Before she set up her own shop she was the night baker at Shipyard Galley in Mattapoisett. But funds to start a food business are scarce unless one is a celebrity executive chef with a cooking show on the Food Network. I asked her how she got started.

“I converted a 12-by-12 mud room in my parents’ house into a commercial kitchen,” she said. “Our first refrigerator came from the basement of the Rochester Grange. You should have seen us trying to drag that out.”

She started small and bought used equipment, until she outgrew the mudroom and had to put in a commercial building.

Thankfully both the town of Rochester and the neighbors on Walnut Plain Road were supportive once she convinced them that a custom bakery was “something that wasn’t going to ruin the character of our sleepy town.” And that she wasn’t installing a drive-thru window.

That was 12 years ago.

Ciaburri-Rousseau needed to build up her business to the point where she’d focus on her first priority: cakes. So the bakery was initially a walk-in retail shop where she baked 7 to 8 types of bread, scones, cookies and muffins and built her reputation for cakes.

It took about five years to turn a profit. Then she closed the walk-in business and now takes phone orders for holiday pies, cupcakes, and party favors like cookies — and by appointment does consultations and tastings for brides wanting to purchase her wedding cakes.

She occasionally has a customer walk in looking for bread. “I tell them we stopped baking bread five years ago, but I’m happy they remembered they liked it,” Ciaburri-Rousseau said. “And I do miss tearing apart a fresh loaf and slathering it with butter and jam.”

I asked her if that was her favorite baked item. It seems she has a weakness for piecrust.

“Put a crust on anything and I’ll eat it,” she laughed.

Artisan Bake Shop employs anywhere from three to 10 bakers and artists, depending on the season. Ten years ago she hired retired art teacher Jody Church who works with fondant as though it is clay and provides intricate decorations for Ciaburri-Rousseau’s creations.

While most businesses abhor turnover Ciaburri-Rousseau has mentored interns and is gratified watching them leave the nest, knowing they’ve learned their craft well.

Her advice to them? “Move around a lot, be transient, take the time to decide what you want to do before settling down,” Ciaburri-Rousseau said.

In essence sew your wild oats, baker style.

What about work-life balance?

“I work all the time. Six days a week, 12-14 hours. My husband is grumpy,” she said. “But it varies seasonally and I feel I have to be very hands-on to make sure our quality is maintained.”

The walls of the shop are lined with awards from places like The Knot and Wedding Wire, both all-things-wedding websites.

I asked if any awards were particularly special.

“We were awarded Artisan of the Year from SEMAP (Southeastern Massachusetts Agricultural Partnership) in 2011,” Ciaburri-Rousseau said. “We buy as much locally as possible and this award is special because it came from a farm organization.”

Ciaburri-Rousseau went on to praise local growers, and declare her love for early black cranberries and local strawberries.

She’s a big believer in seasonal produce and will work hard to convince customers not to request out-of-season fruit for her confections.

Since everything is available all the time, people have come to expect raspberries in January, but that doesn’t mean they’ll taste good.

The Food Network has changed her business. She explained that it is a double-edged sword.

“People know more, but they also expect more,” she said. “They can show me exactly what they want but can’t understand why I won’t stay up all night to make their son an alligator cake on short notice.”

It’s a business that isn’t without horror stories.

“My mom and I delivered a cake to the Whaling Museum in a blizzard,” she said. “We drove 10 miles an hour on 195.”

Once she finally arrived, a young New Bedford cop on Johnny Cake hill told her she couldn’t park there. Then he saw it was a wedding cake.

“Are you married?” she asked. “Yup,” he replied. She asked for how long. “Just a few months,” he said. Then she asked what his wife would have done if this was her wedding cake.

His face showed panic. He not only let her park but he watched the van while she unloaded it.

I asked Ciaburri-Rousseau when she knew she wanted to be a baker. “Very early,” she said.

As a little girl she baked with her grandmother, who she said, “Was a cafeteria lady who could cut up a whole cow.”

Ciaburri-Rousseau took a Wilton cake-decorating class at age 12, but none of the adult students wanted to work with her because she was a kid.

Well, I guess she showed them.

Artisan Bake Shop is at 265 Walnut Plain Road in Rochester. Her menu can be viewed at artisanbakeshop.com.

Her cookies, bobka and teacakes are available at The Gourmet Outlet in New Bedford and Frank’s Butcher Shop and Specialty Deli in Wareham.

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